This invention relates generally to the field of photographic print albums, and more particularly to that form in which the individual leaves thereof are fabricated to each include a transparent envelope enclosing a paper filler, one edge of the leaf being secured to a binding which also secures front and rear covers. Inexpensive versions are often formed to overall length and width of a single print, and with a sufficient number of leaves to accommodate the prints resulting from the finishing of a single roll or cartridge of negative photographic film. Since such albums are usually given gratis to a customer without charge, the cost of fabrication must, of necessity, be low.
To this end, the leaves of the album, together with the front and rear covers are usually interconnected by a spirally configured wire which engages plural in-line openings in each leaf and cover member. As the album is filled, the leaves swell, and in most cases, no provision is incorporated to assure that the leaves and cover will remain in approximately mutually parallel relation. While the use of spacing members adjacent the bound edge in storage albums is known in the album and bookbinding art, such spacers do not present an attractive appearance, and add to the cost of fabrication, both in terms of material and labor. It is the usual practice to eliminate such structures with a corresponding loss of function in lower cost albums.
Because of the resultant thinness of the completed leaf, and the very thin gauge of the synthetic resinous envelope, attempts at gluing the leaves to a centrally disposed binding portion of a composite cover have not proven successful, and despite superior appearance, this type of construction in low cost albums has not found substantial commercial acceptance.